RULES TO FLY BY
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Flotilla ConstructionWhile you can control a single boat in SC if you wish, the focus of the campaign is flotilla command. You have three ship slots in SC, which you can fill or not in the manner you feel serves your empire best. These boats come loaded with another boat, making the total number of boats you can have under your command six. (Eight for the Lyrans.) There are a few rules on how you can build your flotilla. Since I'm writing in the English language many rules will have an exception.
PFs are divided into leaders, support, and scout boats. Each of these will be denoted in the shiplist as follows:
Leader: Will have an "l" prefix (and usually an L in their name)
Support: Will have a "p" prefix
Scout: Will have an "s" prefix in their name.
Line boats -- otherwise known as vanilla boats -- may not be purchased in the shipyard. Instead, they are purchased in the fighter selection screen. Each leader, support, and scout boat has the ability to purchase one line boat.
1) You may NOT simultaneously own two off the SAME class boat. Thus, only one leader, only one scout, and only one support boat may be in your flotilla.
Exception: Interceptor leaders. If you wish, you may control up to three interceptor leaders. You may freely mix them with any PF in your flotilla, but they may only carry vanilla interceptors.
2) You may buy freightors if you wish. They are relatively cheap. However, all "real" ships -- including real frigates -- should cost a couple hundred thousand PP. They are supposed to be priced beyond reach. If you find that you can afford one, please don't. They aren't supposed to be available.3) Bases are represented by PF tenders and Aux PF tenders, and are available for purchased in the shipyard. They are recognizable by their name and by the fact that they are affordable. For example, a BS_AxPFT is an auxilliary PF tender that is used as a base station.
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Flotilla OperationYou are presumed to be in command of a flotilla that was launched by an off-map tender. You are not built for independant operations, are are dependant upon rendezvous with your tender at mission's end. Thus, there are some rules in effect.
1)
Your PF's MUST launch their onboard PF's as soon as possible. I suggest setting a hotkey to launch all fighters. (I use the "F" key.) Then you can press F6, press F, press F7, press F, press F8, press F, and all your boats will be launched. If you aren't sure who drafted you then you might be anxiously scanning and probing for a few moments, but try not to take too long to get yoru boats out there. No one should get bitchy with a stopwatch, but the idea is to get them out there as soon as possible. (this is a roleplay thing; the PF's were never "in" your command PF's anyway, since none of them have bays big enough. But this is the only way I can get you six ships on the map at the same time.)
2)
Once the line PF's are launched, you may NEVER recall them within a mission. It is (barely) possible that one of your PF's under AI control might get a crippled line boat recalled while you are in a different boat. EVERYONE SHOULD BE PREPARED TO DEAL WITH THIS IN A POSITIVE MANNER AND TO NOT CRY "CHEAT!" If this happens, you are prohibited from launching that line boat again during that mission. Again, see above warning. If the AI happens to get the boat launched again, do the right thing and self-destruct it. My first (and likely last) response to anyone who claims their opponent cheated in this manner will be to reply, "No, he didn't. Get over it."
3)
Fi-Cons are free to hold onto or launch their fighters whenever they want. Once launched, they cannot be recalled. (See rule two for "oops" caveats.)
4) You may NOT retreat from combat! This is a war of attrition between boats that don't have the big, self-sustaining warp engines of starships. Strategic warp is not available until your tender shows up. (Which won't be until after the mission.) Casualties are expected and acceptable, and getting caught with your "tanks dry" is a daily hazard. If you are in combat with a live player, You may NOT retreat from combat. If you are outnumbered or damaged, suck it up. Try to kill something before you go down so that your side can gain a point.
The boats are cheap and there are plenty of them. Ship purchase is instantaneous. There are no BCH's for you to save up for. Don't worry about having to stay and get killed.
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The Map ConceptThis is supposed to represent a different kind of warfare. To reflect this, the map will work a little differently than you are used to.
1) Hex DV's will start low. The natives don't really want you there, and don't care if some other empire "takes" them. The new empire is just one more man trying to be "the" man. If you want high DV's in your home space, you will need to run missons there to raise them.
1) (Virtually) No planets. The fortified planets seen in the Imperial Zone simply don't exist on this wide open, primitive frontier of the colonial zone. If a race wants to defend a valuable system, they must deploy boats to do it. And that's your job. "Planets" on this map will be represented by high econ hexes. While some may be easily recognizable by the presence of terrain such as asteroids, some others may not. This is in keeping with the concept that the Colonial zone is a wild frontier. You do not have detailed maps of the enemy's turf and must find his resources through good old-fashioned legwork.
2) No bases. No expensive bases have been built in the Colonial Zone, and now that war has broken out in the Imperial Zone none are going to be for the forseeable future. The role of bases on this map will be filled with PF tenders. When you assault a "base", you will actually be assaulting a tender with its flotilla. In the wild frontier of the Colonial Zone a tender squadron is a potent weapon, as it projects power over a large stretch of space. Likewise, killing a tender helps to empty surrounding space of the infestation of its annoying boats. Bases will be destroyable.
3) Invulnerable capitals. There will be a few planets on the map. These are the provincial capitals of each race, and are considered far too powerful for mere attrition units to conquer. Taking them would require a large battle fleet from the Imperial zone, and they won't be coming until the war back home is over. Thus, you may NOT take missions in an enemy's planet hex. You are free to take missions in your own provincial capital. (Piracy is universal, and it's your job to protect those goods your colonials are sending home.)
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Victory ConditionsIn this war of attrition, there are three things that are important:
1) Attrition of enemy boats (how many kills have you made?)
2) Economic gain sent home to aide the capital's war effort (wht is yoru total economy?)
3) Number of tenders in space (self explanatory, so watch out for Chuut.)
Keep track of how many boats you kill, and report them as they happen. (Details on reporting procedure later.) At the end of the war, each race and each alliance will be ranked from 1 to 8 according to how well they did in each category. The alliance with the lowest total ranking will be declared the winner of the war in the colonial zone. More specifically, the race with the lowest total score will be declared the overall winner of the campaign. So yes, even if you get hosed in one category because your race "suks roks at PvP/Flipping/whatever", you can still win by taking the other two categories.
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The usual rules1) Don't forfeit your way across the map or log off to avoid mandatory missions. You must take a mission if you get mandatory one, or call for someone else to come and draft you.
2) Don't run around and keep a player in mission just to keep him in mission. There are many ways to fight, but if you don't intend to fight --
ever -- then save everyone some time and self-destruct. (Or just charge the enemy and get it over with).
3) Don't exploit a bug if you find one.
4) Don't cheat
5) Don't be abusive towards other players. It makes me sad and then I have to strat banning IP addresses. And that's no fun, because I want as many people to play as can.
It is specifically legal (i.e cheerfully allowed) to lose missions in your own hex in order to give it to an ally! However, it is specifically illegal to log on as the enemy, lose missions in his hexes, and then log on as yourself in order to conquer them. There is defnitely some rock/paper/scissors with some of the races, so granting allies bases may prove useful.
That's about it. I'll update if there are issues.
-Herr Burt
Topic: Squadron Commander II: The Second Wave (Read 9052 times)